Lawyer says detained Gaza doctor was severely beaten in Israeli jail

This video can not be played Dr Hussam Abu Safiya’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said he had difficulty recognising him The lawyer for a prominent Palestinian medic from Gaza who has been detained 18 months has told the BBC he fears for his client's life. Nasser Odeh said that when he visited Dr Hussam Abu Safiya last Thursday at a notorious interrogation facility called Rakefet, his client was so badly beaten that he could not recognise him. "He nearly lost consciousness several times," Odeh said of their meeting. "He told us that he was subjected to severe violence inside the prison, especially on the day of the visit." In a statement to the BBC, the Israel Prison Service rejected the account as false. Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the government to respond a petition calling for the release of Abu Safiya and 13 other Palestinian doctors from Gaza held without charge in Israel. According to Odeh, Abu Safiya said more than five prison guards assaulted him with their hands, batons and hammers after an appeal against his detention last month at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, and that he had not received any medical treatment. "I had difficulty recognising his features. Bruises covered his face, around his eyes, on his neck, and on his ears. Signs of beatings and torture were clearly visible on his face. He was exhausted and unable to breathe, in a difficult physical, psychological, and mental state. "He said clearly, 'I'm living in hell. The mind can't imagine what I go through every day. He was detained in December 2024, when the Israeli military forced patients and medical staff to leave the hospital, saying it was a "Hamas terrorist stronghold". At the time, the World Health Organization called for an end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza. Images circulated at the time showed Abu Safiya walking towards an Israeli armoured vehicle in his white doctor's coat through the rubble before being taken for interrogation. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement to the BBC that he was apprehended for suspected involvement in terrorist activities and for holding a rank in Hamas. Abu Safiya held the rank of colonel in the health department of Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry, in an agency that provided medical treatment to security and police and their families. However, medical staff and international aid groups that worked with Abu Safiya deny that he co-operated with or worked for Hamas.